


Gaining Trust

by samalander



Series: Trust 'Verse [1]
Category: Star Trek XI
Genre: Bullying, Friendship, M/M, Male Friendship, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-17
Updated: 2009-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-22 12:51:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/238191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samalander/pseuds/samalander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/st_xi_kink/3656.html?thread=8044104#t8044104">this</a> prompt on the kinkmeme: <i>Turns out Sulu knows Chekov from back at the Academy. Mainly because he was friends with a bunch of guys who used to tease/harass Chekov relentlessly.</i></p>
<p><i>Even though he didn't take part, he did stand by and let it happen.</i><br/>Now they've both been assigned to the Enterprise, Sulu finds himself falling for Chekov and wants to prove he's changed!</p>
<p>
  <i>He starts following Chekov, trying to talk to him and apologize, but Chekov thinks he's going to be harassed all over again and avoids him, runs away to hide with McCoy, etc.</i>
</p>
<p>Un-beta'd. Concrit welcome and loved.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Gaining Trust

There are a few things in his life that Hikaru Sulu truly, deeply regrets. Not stopping Charlie Penn from breaking Pavel Chekov's nose is one of them.

That's not the beginning of the story, of course. Charlie hated Pavel for being an insufferable know-it-all in their Basic Warp Mechanics class. According to Charlie, the young Russian did everything short of whirling like a dervish to get attention; he jumped, grunted and waved his hand with unabashed gusto when he wanted to answer a question, and never seemed to notice how much everyone hated him for it.

The hitting thing was at the end of a long campaign of subtle harassment, of course. Charlie would trip Chekov in the mess, knock his books out of his hands… things that all could have been friendly ribbing if Charlie wasn't such a dick.

Hikaru generally sat and watched as these things happened. He didn't care about the kid, and it wasn't like he hadn't seen Charlie do this shit before. Hikaru wasn't stupid; he knew then, like all truly weak people know, that the safest place to be is behind the bully.

* * *

The nose breaking happened on a Saturday. They had been out in San Francisco, enjoying a rare respite from classes and studying. Charlie had wanted to go drinking, so they went. Stumbling back to the academy, skirting curfew and reeking of Romulan Ale, they had come across Pavel Chekov sitting on a bench with the Orion girl, Gaila or Galla or Gills or something.

Charlie, drunk and stupid, had started taunting them. "Wassa matter, Pavvy? Have to pay to get a girl?" Sulu had seen Chekov's spine tighten at that, but had hoped, in his coward's heart, that it would be the end of it.

"Can't even score a human," Charlie sneered, "Pavvy has to get his jollies from a green-skinned frog lady!"

The Orion had gotten up then, starting towards Sulu and Charlie like a panther, and Hikaru spent a moment almost aroused by the lithe fury she seemed to display. She never made it to them, though, because little Chekov – he couldn't have been any more than fifteen – rushed past her and aimed a punch at the highest place on Charlie he could reach – his neck.

It wasn't a smart idea, nor was it an effective punch. Charlie came back at Chekov with the fury of a drunken idiot, smashing the younger man's nose with a laugh that made Sulu heave. He was drunk, he was watching a kid bleed from the face, and it had just occurred to him that Charlie was a humungous jackass.

Hikaru turned and vomited, green and white, into the grass. He felt Charlie's hands lifting him to his feet and an arm around his back.

"Clean up your client," Charlie spit at the Orion girl, who was already tending to the writing, cursing body on the ground – probably stopping him from jumping back up to continue getting the snot kicked out of him – and began to haul Sulu away, back to their dorm room.

Charlie was suspended for the assault, Hikaru was given five demerits for drunkenness, and Chekov was let off the hook because no one even thought to mention he threw the first punch. If Hikaru had paid attention, he would have noticed that, for the next two years, until the distress call on Vulcan, he didn't see Chekov. Every time Sulu approached, the other cadet turned on his heel and walked away as fast as he could.

* * *

When Sulu slid in his seat on the Enterprise (not his seat, McKenna's seat. Stupid, sick McKenna) the first thing he did was glance at the navigator.

_Fuck_

It was that kid, the one Charlie liked to fuck with. What was his name? Fuck. This was the last thing Hikaru needed – finally on the bridge of the greatest ship in the goddamn fleet, and sitting next to someone he had pretty much helped humiliate for the better part of a year.

If went downhill from there – the external inertial dampener, volunteering for the stupid space dive, and finally getting his ass saved by the same kid he had fucked with.

If it wasn't the worst day he'd had in a long time, he didn't know what was.

* * *

A week in, Sulu began to notice that he never saw Chekov around – not at the gym, not in the mess, not even in the rec area – only on the bridge, when they were working. Finally, it got to be too much, and Sulu gave in.

He regretted buzzing the Ensign's door as soon as he had done it, and even turned to go. In fact, he heard, rather than saw, the door open to his back.

"Mr. Sulu?" the quiet voice was something Sulu had grown accustomed to on the bridge, but it still caught him off guard. Quickly, he spun on his heel and faced his accuser.

"Chekov—"

But that was all he got to say, because the door was closed and locked before there could be more. No matter how many times he buzzed, the Ensign wouldn't open it.

* * *

Three days after the incident at Chekov's room, Sulu was getting wise to the Ensign's tricks. He started seeing Chekov veer off into corridors as Sulu approached, enter rooms and then leave them, he even found out that Chekov did his working out on the observation deck, running marathons between the stars.

No wonder the kid seemed invisible.

* * *

In the end, Sulu's plan was ingenuous.

He knew his navigator well enough to know that if there was one thing Pavel Chekov couldn't resist, it was a puzzle. He created a cryptogram – a string of binary, backwards and split into several parts began appearing on all the Ensign's PADDs and consoles.

"Chekov – I'm sorry I left him hurt you. – Sulu"

* * *

To Sulu's credit, it took Chekov almost a week to solve it. Or maybe it took three hours to solve, and the remaining time to figure out what to do about it. Either way, the Russian showed up at Sulu's door a week after the code was first sent.

"You are sending me messages."

As hellos went, it wasn't a great one. It was more of an accusation, angry and hurt.

"Yes. But only because you wouldn't talk to me."

"Stop sending me messages."

"Please forgive me? I was an idiot. I'll never let anyone hurt you again." The words came as a shock to Sulu, even as he said them. Who was he to make such promises? What did Chekov mean to him, that he was willing to use words like "never?"

Chekov seemed taken aback as well. "How can you promise this?"

"I—I can't. But if I could, I would. Please know that."

Chekov thought it over for a moment, two, a minute. Sulu thought that maybe he would explode for wanting the tension to end.

Finally, after a time in which empires rose and fell and were reconstructed, Chekov nodded. "I will stop avoiding you."

Sulu remembered to breathe and, to his credit, did not pass out from lack of oxygen. In fact, he downright beamed at Chekov, who thought he had never seen someone so happy.

"Thanks, Pavel. I was about to go down to the mess for some dinner. Would you like to join me?"

Pavel regarded the older man steadily for a moment before smiling tentatively. "Yes, that would be nice."

Sulu stepped into the hall, and the two began to make their way to the turbolift. Had any outsider been interested, they would have heard Chekov's voice, over the hum of the ship. "You know, Russians invented dinner."


End file.
